AAR: Musings of a GWOT Vet Newb

[Airborne28 4]

Since this is my first post about newbdom, I will attempt to do a couple of things:

 

1. paint a basic picture of who I am so you understand where my point of origin is.

 

2. Give you the AAR ( After action review, the "what happened" for you civis)

 

3. pose rhetorical questions 

 

4. and the upshot ( summary)

 

These are intended to help newer players like me. Please follow OPSEC.

 

Bring it in, take a knee:

 

 

1. I'm a GWOT (global war on terror) vet with several tours "down range". What do I do? I'm a Soldier; I solve problems. Most "Military" folks are not combatants, they are supporters of the pipehitter community. Most standing armies work this way. So that "Transportation SF SEAL BLACK OPS " e-4 dude you know, he's probably full of shit and has never herd a shot fired in anger. Sorry, deal with it, accept the wobble in your work space and move on.

I am a father of 3 and husband to totally rad chick. 

 

I spend most of my free time with my family, hunting, or doing PT (physical training). why did I get this game? well it's basically a good LAND NAV tool, and as we all know LAND NAV is a perishable skill. It also affords my the ability to have a reason to NAV from point A-B, and things to avoid. It's great for dead reckoning. I will normally play for 1-2 hours every couple of days. Long enough to move about the map, do something with a purpose, and have fun.

 

2. No shit, there I was 001: Read the basic intel of the game, what to do when you spawn ect, and logged in. started getting accustomed to the controls ( I moved a few meters around) and got attacked by a zombie within 30 secs. I'm dead....... really? Sure I punched the dude but I was trying to mess with video settings in the "spawn zone". There we houses about 100m away, shame on me. 

YOU ARE NEVER SAFE ONCE YOUR IN GAME. There is no tutorial safe area. 

 

002: spawned, ran to a house, zombie saw me. closed doors leading from the outside, zombie did not get in. First house had all open doors, 0 loot. next house open doors, zombie got through the door so I had to run out. I noticed the door had a hole in it, like a vertical gash. I have found that any door with a hole, or the glass missing, isn't a door at all. Your not safe there. 

I Spawned inland not near any water so I had no idea where I was. ran 3-5m off a road till I came to another built up area with a sign. Jumped on the DAYZB map website and found where I was. I had a distance, direction, and a motivation now, but no compass. I used terrain association, the sun, and the clouds to have a cardinal direction. 

eventually I found a fireman's ax (AWESOME TOOL) so I was not longer worried about hiding from Zs. I found my way to the NEAF ( North East Airfield) to find a gun. Found a 1911, and a magazine. Logged out. 

 

Logged back in several hours later. ran outside the Control tower at NEAF and saw my first ever other player. I had no weapon out and I used on the of the F function keys to wave. I spoke " hi there" into my mike. He ran towards my but in a funny way. His legs weren't moving, so he sort of glided towards me. Black screen, " YOU ARE DEAD". 

 

This is called kill on sight or KOS and is the default operating mode of most players.There are many danger areas. look them up. Being kind and friendly doesn't matter to sadistic children whom live in a totally disposable market life. Interestingly enough, It's such a protracted tragedy to them if they die. I'll explain more later.  

 

003: spawned on the easy coast. Easy to find where I am. was in the middle of the "clan" application process. Clan won't be mentioned but dubbed itself as "military oriented". It's not, they just use the basic pay grade scale but it's used incorrectly nor is it effective. Got accepted; sweet, a fire team, more hands = more safety. was going to link up with them in a town. mentioned where I was and what I looked like since they had a uniform ID requirement to mitigate fratricide. Ok cool, me thinks, they think. Outside of the location to meet, one my youngings woke up from her bed time. I cut sling load and ran to the sound of real need. Came back and I was dead. Ok maybe a zombie killed me right?.... Wrong. My new clan dusted me like a leaf blower cause they couldn't reach me on team speak and were unsure of who my player was ( remember this for later). The comment when I asked why I was smoke in teamspeak was "you didn't have anything anyway!". Ohh fucking thanks nerd. I don't live for this shit at all but  003 took me about 2 hours of my life to get to that point. I don't care about dieing during a raid or zombie mass, but fratricide treated this way !?!  Ok they are all civis, no big deal. logged

 

004: Respawned on the same server as several teammates. I spawned in NOVO way up north. It was a "fresh" server meaning everything had reset and loot redropped. I noticed all doors  were closed. Big town all to myself and no zombies anywhere. The loot ( guns included) that I found in 5 mis took several hours before. Spoke to a guy on teamspeak and left to meet up. We met up after some LAND NAV issues of the name of the Rally point.

As I went into my first house near the rally point to conduct link up, a gunshot hit the wall next to me. Then another. And he told me it was him after a second or two. Got me to a red direct state fast before I knew it was him. Ok jokes aside. I can't emphasize enough what a nice dude he is, just cheeky and maybe young. He wanted to play a similar prank on clan-mates raiding a specific town. We ran down there,  logged in their server got in the prone, and joined them on teamspeak. 1-2 shots into the roof of a house and herd them go nuts. My bud told them it was us. We preceded to run around the town looting and chasing down cows. Everyone was wicked nice and fun to play with, but no one (including me ) was wearing the "clan uniform". We cooked a lot of cow meat and had a buffet. As the group started to break up several members "left" the teamspeak channel, back and forth for a few until someone got specific people for another "operation". Ok, our group began the "good nights and logging off", process. From the start of town looting till the break up was 2ish hours with the last 30mins being conversations about whos staying on and who's calling it a night. 

 

I ran back to the wood line to log out and I see a player in the prone pointing away from me. I hollered out the location, and description of the player several times in teamspeak, "WHO IS IS?". I crept closer, "hey anyone wearing ect, and at ect.?". Nothing. several more attempts at ID, this goes on for a about a minute. Player stands up, turns towards me, hands start moving ( HANDS MOVING =GUN), I'm in their view, " IS THIS ANYBODY ON TEAM SPEAK!!" Hands moving (Remember my NEAF encounter?). Two shots to the T-zone and I I dropped that body like Cholera. I start looking for follow on team mates. Few seconds go by "Hey did you shoot me?" is said in teamspeak. MOTHER FUCKER I JUST FRATRICIDED!! Trying to figure out how to bandage another player for the first time is like reading the damn Rosetta stone. Player dies. I am immediately lambasted by team mates, none of whom answered the calls on team speak. In good order I elect myself to stand guard by their gear so they do not have to start over. He shows up and tries to handcuff me. Almost shot him again for that. Dueces I'm out.

 

3. So whats a fella to do. One day your being shot for being friendly, the next your killing team mates whom you don't know are team mates cause they were pulled from your channel.

First off, there are no "safe servers". Only places that were "low pop" when you logged in.

Any area cleared, then left, must be assumed to be dangerous again and re-cleared.

If there are controls in place to mitigate fratricide, why aren't they enforced?

If KOS of unknowns is a clan by-rule, why do we care so much or apply it disproportionately when it's a better geared friend.

Why is KOS the default mode of operation, and what's the point of killing inferior players?

 

4. You are never safe. Linking up with a group poses these social, but should be operational issues. In real life we have MANY more mitigating factors to limit fratricide. In this game you have Commo, that's it.

The time I was killed by clan mates, ok sure I didn't communicate. Communication is vital in real life, and is the only measure you have at your disposal. No one is going to want to play with graphic control measure maps, or do OP orders correctly. 

 

I don't feel that KOS should be the only interaction you have with others, but most do it out of fear. You can't expect to change this, it's the social construct of the game. Being deadly is often misunderstood as the application of violence, but is equally applicable to avoiding it or being silent. Inevitably it's up to you. 

 

Since the game changed to mostly eastern coast or eastern inland spawns, the main PVP hubs have changed. Look at the map, draw a N/S line on the far west side of NEAF, these are the new Electros and so forth. They are teeming with both geared and ungeared players. My advice is to fountain hop ( drinking fountains) and grab ALL the food you can heading inland and west. Look for an ax or a gardening hoe (two hitter quitter). Industrial sites normally have a backpack. I haven't found anything in hunting towers or car trunks yet. Certain houses hold better loot more often ( piano houses) but are fewer in number. Take your shirt off and immediately tear it into rags to use as a bandage. If you do this, you might die fast, but you'll die with little lost, more experienced. Take a mental picture of towns as you flow through them. Guns are worthless without ammo, but guns should be near the bottom of your priority list. Join a clan or go it alone, but unafraid. 

 

If you can't stay safe, stay deadly

 

Airborne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Parazight 1599]

Nice post.

Why is KOS the default mode of operation, and what's the point of killing inferior players?

Killing on sight is standard protocol because there is nothing else. Until better communities are formed through more server control, persistent items, barricading, and vehicles, there will only be people shooting at people.

[IronCross 78]

 Fellow vet myself. Air Force, ground combatant, yup :D Bet you thought that was an oxymoron.

 

SN: Your use of the word pipehitter cracked me up.

Edited August 20, 2014 by IronCross

[grindstone50k 208]

Bro, one vet to another; you need to chill. You don't even make your contempt for the non-HSLD subtle.

[IronCross 78]

You need thicker skin.

[Airborne28 4]

Fellow vet myself. Air Force, ground combatant, yup :D Bet you thought that was an oxymoron.

 

SN: Your use of the word pipehitter cracked me up.

Dude, a hitters a hitter. We had a " best hair- do comp" and the ground controllers always won.

[Legio23 82]

Nice post

 

And yup comms is a problem. The guys I play with are pretty good at keeping the chatter down and going silent in contact situations for the guy who's eyes on, but, when the group gets to 8 or more then it just goes tits up getting saturated with everyone trying to talk over everyone else which quite often leads to multiple guys getting killed by outsiders or fracticides.

 

And ex Legion here. I do actually wonder how many ex mil or actives play this.

[IronCross 78]

Ex legion? Hell yeah.

[IronCross 78]

Check PMs, both of you